304 


Dedicated  to  the  promotion  of 

understanding   and    co-operation 

between  the  races. 


Copyrighted  1919  by 
The  Great  Western  Publishing  Company 

1237  W    Madison  St. 
Chicago,    111. 


Preface. 


THE  agitated,  throbbing,  "black"  heart  of 
Chicago  is  at  this  date,  August  1919,  en- 
circled with  a  steely  ring  of  bayonets  and 
automatics  in  the  hands  of  United  States  sol- 
diers and  Chicago  policemen.  Negroes  to  the 
number  of  200,000,  conservatively  estimated,  re- 
side in  the  so-called  riot  zone.  The  military 
and  police  forces  were  placed  there  for  the  pur- 
pose of  suppressing  race  riots  that  in  the  last 
week  of  July,  1919,  threatened  the  overthrow  of 
all  the  municipal  governmental  restraints  •  that 
the  city  of  Chicago  could  throw  into  the  streets. 
The  burden  of  this  pamphlet  is  an  earnest, 
conscientious  probe  of  the  fearful  set  of  social 
circumstances  that  could  make  possible  and  let 
loose  the  flame  of  beastiliness  and  animalism 
that  resulted  in  35  officially  recorded,  200 
rumored  deaths  and  serious  injuries  running  in- 
to the  thousands. 

The  author  of  this  pamphlet  is  convinced 
that  the  cause  of  the  race  conflict  in  Chicago 
and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States  is  rooted  deep 
in  our  economic  system  and,  while  other  contrib- 
uting causes  are  admitted,  their  influence  on 
the  actions  of  men  and  women  of  both  races  is 
so  slight  that  they  can  with  reason  and  good 
judgment  practically  be  disregarded  in  a  book- 
let of  this  size  and  character. 


The  flaming  rage  of  a  mob,  angered  at  the 
real  or  fancied  outrage  of  some  woman  of  their 
race  by  a  man  of  another  color  can  be  analyzed, 
accounted  for,  understood.  But  the  spectacle 
of  a  ferocious  mob  flowing  thru  the  streets  seek- 
ing a  black  or  white  victim,  as  the  case  may  be, 
on  general  principles  and  without  special  pro- 
vocation is  a  social  phenomena  that  demands 
profound  and  special  study. 

Law  defying  bands  of  Whites  and  Blacks  that 
go  indiscriminately  hunting  and  gunning  for 
victims  in  a  city  where  there  are  approximately 
250,000  Negroes,  constitute  a  social  danger 
signal  which  cannot  and  must  not  be  ignored. 

With  one  tenth  of  our  national  population 
composed  of  black  and  mulatto  persons  the  race 
problem  in  America  is  one  of  the  most  explosive 
that  we  have  to  contend  with. 

This  pamphlet  is  issued  in  fairness  to  both 
races*  and  is  an  earnest  contribution  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  vital,  pressing  problem  that  menaces 
the  peace  of  the  nation  and  is  especially  recom- 
mended to  the  toiling  masses  who  bear  the  bur- 
dens of  the  world  and  whose  faces  are  kept  in 
the  dirt  by  reason  of  division,  misunderstanding 
and  ignorance. 

Harrison  George. 


STATEMENT  OF  THE 
STOCK  YARDS  LABOR  COUNCIL 

By 
J.  W.  JOHNSTONE,    Secretary-Treasurer. 

The  Stock  Yards  Labor  Council  extends  a 
fraternal  welcome  and  an  invitation  to  unite 
with  us  to  each  and  every  colored  worker  in  the 
city  of  Chicago.  To  emphasize  our  goodwill  we 
have  granted  organization  privileges  to  our  col- 
ored brothers  in  the  past  that  have  been  denied 
white  workers.  Colored  unionists  are  free  to  join 
white  locals  or  organize  color  locals  of  their  own. 
Newly  initiated  black  union  men  may  affiliate 
with  the  local  of  their  craft  or  they  may  select 
the  local  of  their  choice.  Colored  union  men  are 
granted  admission  with  right  of  discusion  to  any 
Stock  Yards  union.  White  union  men  are  restrict- 
ed to  union  privileges  in  the  local  of  their  craft, 
must  join  that  local  and  are  not  granted  the 
right  of  general  discussion  in  all  locals.  This  is 
all  done  to  promote  fraternal  fellowship  and 
understanding  between  the  races. 

We  are  positive  that  if  the  toilers  of  both 
races  in  the  stock  yards  and  the  great  industries 
of  Chicago  were  thoroughly  organized,  if  the 
conflict  for  jobs  and  wages  were  adjusted  by 
this  White-Black  union,  serious  race  trouble 
would  be  impossible. 

When  this  unity  of  purpose  and  organization 
on  the  industrial  field  is  perfected  by  the  work- 
ers of  Chicago  the  vicious  and  successful  cam- 
paigns carried  on  by  large  employers  of  labor  in 
this  city  and  other  cities  to  pit  and  play  blacks 


against  whites  wil  be  at  an  end  and  one  prolific 
source  of  trouble  eliminated. 

The  desire  of  the  organized  packers  is  division 
in  the  ranks  of  the  white  and  colored  workers; 
the  desire  of  all  intelligent  workers  of  both  races 
is  unity  and  organization  among  white  and  col- 
ored employes.  The  Stock  Yards  Labor  Council 
knows  no  color  line  or  sex,  dismisses  all  creed 
and  national  distinctions  and  seeks  to  embrace 
the  toiling  masses  from  all  four  quarters  of  the 
globe  in  the  high  and  noble  purposes  of  clean- 
cut  unionism.  We  know  but  one  opposition  and 
that  consists  of  those  industrial  forces  that  seek 
to  put  too  great  burdens  upon  the  backs  of  the 
working  class,  that  seek  to  grind  their  faces  in 
the  dirt  and  deny  them  the  right  to  live  as  Amer- 
icans should ;  upon  these  and  these  alone  we  de- 
clare unending  war  until  the  toilers  of  every 
color  and  clime  that  are  in  the  American  melting 
pot  and  building  this  great  nation  shall  have 
come  into  their  own — industrial  freedom,  indus- 
trial democracy  and  the  control  of  the  lives  and 
destinies  of  themselves  and  their  families. 


OUR  REAL  ENEMY. 
MARY  MARCY,   Author-Journalist. 

In  Germany  the  profiteers  are  printing  stories 
about  the  Jews  in  order  to  inflame  the  minds  of 
the  workers  so  they  will  forget  high  prices  and 
the  men  who  profit  by  them,  and  be  side-tracked 
into  race  riots. 

Stock  yards  workers  tell  me  that  here  in  Chi- 
cago the  millionaire  packers  are  doing  their  best 


to  promote  enmity  betwen  the  colored  and  the 
white  workers  so  that  when  you  and  I  grow  des- 
perate over  the  rising  cost  of  living  we  will  pick 
fights  with  each  other  and  spend  our  rage  on  our 
fellow  workers. 

One  of  the  methods  the  packers  use  is  to  pay 
the  colored  workers  higher  wages  than  the  union 
scale.  They  want  to  keep  the  colored  men  and 
women  out  of  the  unions,  so  that  when  the  white 
men  go  out  on  strike  for  decent  living  conditions 
the  colored  men  will  scab  on  them.  Then  when 
the  fight  against  the  white  union  men  has  been 
won  the  packers  will  fire  the  colored  workers 
and  take  back  the  white  ones.  In  other  words  the 
big  thieves  are  trying  to  use  workingmen  against 
workingmen  for  their  own  profit. 

But  gradually  the  colored  folks  are  getting 
wise  to  the  packers'  game  and  are  joining  the 
unions.  They  know  the  packers  don't  care  as 
much  for  any  workingman  as  they  do  for  a 
pound  of  farm  sausage.  All  they  want  is  to  use 
the  whites  against  the  colored  men,  or  the  color- 
ed workers  against  the  white  men  to  force  down 
wages.  Then  the  packers  will  hire  the  men  who 
work  cheapest. 

Some  unions  have  raised  wages  from  50  cents 
a  day  to  nine  dollars  a  day.  They  were  able  to  do 
this  because  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestant 
workers,  the  Irish  and  the  Dutch,  the  Jew  and 
the  colored  workers  STUCK  TOGETHER;  they 
all  refused  to  scab  because  they  knew  that  the 
scab  ultimately  lowers  his  own  wages. 

Government  reports  show  that  the  Swift 
family  grabbed  $47,000,000  profits  last  year. 
And  they  probably  did  not  EARN  $2,000  of  it, 


while  the  workers  in  the  Swift  plants  were  only 
paid  $22,000,000  in  wages.  The  idlers  got  over 
twice  as  much  as  their  rake-off  as  the  workers 
who  run  the  packing  plants.  The  report  of  the 
Armour  and  other  packing  plants  is  nearly  as 
bad. 

Don't  let  the  packers  or  any  other  capitalists 
side-track  your  common  sense.  Don't  let  them 
turn  you  against  your  white  or  black  brother 
SO  THEY  CAN  HIRE  MEN  AT  LOWER 
WAGES  LATER  ON  and  get  still  richer  out 
of  your  abor. 

The  packers  cannot  fool  me.  Whenever  they 
do  things  that  foster  race  riots  I  know  they  are 
like  the  burglar  that  gets  his  pal  to  throw  a  tin 
pan  in  the  cellar  while  he  ROBS  THE  fcAFE. 
And  they  can't  draw  my  attention  away  from 
the  millions  they  are  taking  from  the  people  who 
work. 

When  they  are  united  the  white  and  colored 
workers  WIN :  when  the  workers  are  divided 
THE  BOSS  WINS.  Unite,  join  the  union  and 
bea:  the  boss! 


SHALL     WE    UNIONIZE? 

THE     PARAMOUNT     QUESTION     among 

our  workmen  at  the  stock  yards  is  whether  or 
not  to  unionize.  During  the  recent  riots  the  union 
officials  made  stirring  appeals  to  our  stock  yard 
workers  with  a  view  to  inducing  them  to  become 
members  of  the  union.  Organized  labor  publica- 
tions through  their  editorial  columns  voiced  the 
same  demands.  Some  of  these  proposals  were  of 


the  most  flattering  character  and  should  receive 
the  serious  consideration  of  our  workers. 

IN  YEARS  PAST  our  attitude  has  been  one 
of  distrust  and  suspicion  of  the  motives  and  hon- 
esty of  purpose  of  the  leaders  of  organized  labor. 
For  much  of  this  attitude  the  labor  leaders 
themselves  are  responsible.  In  their  constitu- 
tions the  word  "white"  stood  a  gigantic  barrier 
to  our  participation  with  them  in  the  labor  field. 
In  recent  years  there  seems  to  be  a  growing  dis- 
position to  open  the  doors  of  unionism  to  our 
workmen, 

LEADERS  LIKE  KIKULSKI,  Fitzpatrick 
and  Johnston,  in  conference  with  leading  police 
officials  during  the  last  stock  yard  strike,  stated 
that  not  a  single  soldier  or  policeman  would  be 
required  in  that  district  to  preserve  order.  Arid 
that  organized  labor  would  see  to  it  that  the 
black  workman  would  be  protected  by  his  white 
associates  in  the  ranks  of  organized  labor. 

WHEN  ALL  IS  SAID  and  done,  it  may  be 
the  part  of  wisdom  for  us  to  join  with  the  white 
brother  in  the  labor  movement.  Most  of  our 
workmen's  trouble  in  the  North  is  due  largely  to 
antagonism  in  the  industrial  field,  and  if  these 
antagonisms  can  be  wiped  cut  by  our  entering 
the  ranks  of  unionism  it  seems  the  only  sane  and 
safe  thing  for  us  to  do.  At  any  rate,  the  experi- 
ment is  worth  a  trial.  To  any  forward-looking 
man  it  must  be  apparent  that  there  must  be  a 
common  destiny  for  workmen  of  all  classes.  For 
the  good  of  the  nation  white  men  and  black  men 
must  not  go  through  the  years  with  their  hands 
at  each  other's  throats.  Something  must  be  done 
to  remove  from  the  mind  of  the  white  laboring 


man  the  notion  that  large  employers  of  labor 
are  using  us  as  a  big  stick  over  their  heads.  And 
the  labor  leaders  must  remove  from  our  work- 
men's mind  the  suspicion  and  distrust  born  of 
the  previous  attitude  of  unionism  toward  them. 

WE  CONFESS  that  our  experience  with  or- 
ganized labor  in  this  locality  has  not  been  re- 
assuring. Some  years  ago  our  waiters  entered 
the  labor  movement  by  organizing  a  strong 
branch  among  themselves.  They  were  induced 
by  the  leaders  of  the  white  waiters'  union  to 
strike  against  the  existing  scale  of  wages.  In- 
stead of  the  support  and  co-operation  which  they 
expected  from  their  white  brothers,  they  were 
forced  to  see  their  places  filled  by  white  union 
waiters.  This  bit  of  unpleasant  experience  still 
sticks  in  our  minds  and  is  frequenty  used  as  the 
basis  of  much  of  the  opposition  that  exists 
among  us  against  unionizing. 

IF  THE  LEADERS  of  the  labor  movement 
are  anxious  for  our  co-operation  we  stand  ready 
to  give  it  when  we  can  be  assured  that  we  will 
not  be  deserted  by  our  white  brothers  in  a  crisis. 
We  do  not  relish  the  present  situation,  with  its 
antagonisms  and  its  hatreds.  We  stand  ready  on 
any  tomorrow  to  extend  the  hand  of  fellowship 
to  our  white  brother  in  the  labor  world,  but  we 
want  him  to  come  with  clean  hands  and  with  the 
honest  resolve  to  sink  or  swim  in  a  common 
cause  for  the  betterment  of  American  laboring 
conditions,  without  regard  to  race  or  color. 

— Chicago  Defender. 


CONCERNING    THE    RACE    RIOTS 

By  the 
CHICAGO    FEDERATON    OF    LABOR. 

The  profiteering  meat  packers  of  Chicago  are 
responsible  for  the  race  riots  that  have  disgraced 
the  city. 

It  is  the  outcome  of  their  deliberate  attempt 
to  disrupt  the  union  labor  movement  in  the 
stockyards.  Their  responsibility  is  shared  by  the 
daily  newspapers  which  are  kept  subsidized  by 
the  extravagant  advertising  contracts  of  the 
packers,  particularly  the  Tribune  and  the  Her- 
ald and  Examiner. 

The  same  meat  packers  can  solve  the  problem 
if  they  will  and  put  a  stop  to  the  trouble,  but  it 
can  be  done  only  in  one  way,  if  it  is  not  to  break 
out  again  at  a  future  date  more  violently  than 
before.  The  packers  know  that  way.  They  have 
been  told  what  it  is  and  they  are  doing  nothing 
about  it. 

Ever  since  organized  labor  first  started  to 
unite  the  stockyards  employes,  the  packers  have 
fought  with  every  weapon  at  their  command 
these  efforts  of  the  workers. 

Discriminating  against  union  men,  they  have 
fired  them  and  hired  nonunion  men  in  their 
places.  In  recent  years  their  principal  recruit- 
ing points  for  nonunion  workers  have  been  in  the 
south,  and  nonunion  colored  workers  have  beei? 
brought  here  in  great  numbers  just  as  they  are 


being  brought  here  now  by  the  railroads — or 
were  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  race  riots. 

These  colored  men  and  women  are  not 
brought  here  for  their  own  improvement,  but  are 
enslaved  at  low  wages  and  have  been  used  by  the 
pacekrs  to  undermine  union  conditions. 

Organized  labor  has  no  quarrel  with  the  col- 
ored worker.  Workers,  white  and  black,  are 
fighting  the  same  battle.  The  unions  met  the  ac- 
tion of  the  packers  by  starting  to  organize  the 
colored  workers. 

As  soon  as  this  work  commenced,  the  packers 
started  to  fight  the  unions  with  foul  tactics.  They 
subsidized  negro  politicians  and  negro  preachers 
and  sent  them  out  among  the  colored  men  and 
women  to  induce  them  not  to  join  the  unions. 
They  had  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  on  their  staff, 
and  the  two  present  aldermen  of  the  second 
ward  participated  actively  in  this  campaign  of 
the  packers.  One  of  them,  Aid.  L.  B.  Anderson, 
went  before  Attorney  Francis  J.  Heney,  repre- 
senting the  workers,  when  he  was  preparing  for 
his  appearance  before  Judge  Altschuler  and 
urged  that  Heney  should  not  ask  the  judge  to 
order  the  packers  to  maintain  a  preferential 
union  shop. 

Their  purpose  in  this,  which  during  the  last 
several  weeks  has  born  bitter  fruit,  was  to  play 
upon  race  prejudice  and  create  dissension 
between  whites  and  blacks  which  would  prevent 
the  colored  workers  from  joining  the  unions  and 
prejudice  the  white  workers  against  them  for 
that  reason.  Notwithstanding  their  efforts,  the 
colored  workers  came  into  the  union  in  large 
numbers. 


Some  weeks  ago  the  unions  redoubled  their 
efforts  to  get  the  negroes  in.  Squads  of  union  or- 
ganizers held  street  corner  meetings  as  the  work- 
ers left  the  yards.  The  packers  called  on  Captain 
Caughlin  of  the  stockyards  station  for  mounted 
police  to  break  up  these  meetings,  and  Captain 
Caughlin,  tool  of  the  packers,  sent  his  bluecoats 
there  to  ride  down  the  men  who  gathered  to 
listen  to  the  speakers.  This  caused  a  strike  of 
stockyards  workers  until  the  federation  officials 
and  the  officials  of  the  Stockyards  Labor  Coun- 
cil steped  in  and  secured  the  transfer  of  Captain 
Caughlin  away  from  the  yards  and  the  cessation 
of  this  Cossack  practice. 

The  union  planned  a  gigantic  massmeeting 
and  demonstration  to  take  place  Sunday,  July  6, 
at  which  white  and  black  workers  were  to  parade 
together  throughout  the  stockyards  district  and 
gather  to  hear  speakers  in  a  public  playground. 

On  the  last  day  before  this  event,  the  pack- 
ers called  upon  the  police  and  said  they  had  in 
formation  that  the  negroes  were  arming  to  as-( 
sault  the  whites  and  they  wanted  the  parade' 
permit  revoked,  at  least  they  wanted  the  negroes 
and  whites  to  march  separately. 

Is  not  their  purpose  clear? 

Executive  Board,  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor — 
John  Fitzpatrick,  President, 
E.  N.  Nockels,  Secretary. 


11 


The  Chicago  Race  Riots 

THE  frothy,  bloody  wake  of  the  Great  War 
revealed  many  things  in  our  civilization 
that  shook  our  faith  in  God,  in  Christ,  and 
in  the  divine  purpose  of  mankind  themselves. 
Nowhere  was  the  sickening  realization  that  we 
are  still  animals  more  vivid  and  unescapable 
than  in  the  city  of  Chicago  during  the  week  of 
July  28th,  1919  when  the  flame  of  racial  antag- 
onism resulting  from  the  friction  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  returning  white  soldiers  meeting 
tens  of  thousands  of  Negro  workers  firmly  in- 
trenched in  tens  of  thousands  of  jobs  that  the 
white  soldiers  and  discharged  civilians  wanted 
and  needed.  The  placing  of  millions  of  men  in 
the  forefront  of  the  national  defense  and  the 
unheard  of  industrial  speed  to  which  America 
was  forced,  taxed  to  the  limit  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  of  working  age,  and  every  pound  of 
machinery  that  we  possessed.  The  Golden  Age 
of  industry  seemed  to  have  arrived.  Unlimited 
markets,  unlimited  production,  unlimited  oppor- 
tunity for  work,  unheard  of  wages.  (We  are  not 
discussing  unheard  of  prices  at  this  time.)  All 
this  tapped  and  drained  the  American  labor  res- 
ervoir in  every  state  of  the  Union.  The  packers 
of  Chicago  turned  their  dividend-hungry  eyes 
to  our  Southern  fields  where  the  brawny  human 
workhorses  of  Africa  were  enjoying  their  more 

12 


or  less  carefree  lives  on  the  farms,  plantations 
and  in  the  small  towns  of  the  South.  The  lure 
of  the  city  with  its  fabulous  wages  and  the 
accompaning  promises  of  the  packers  success- 
fully started  the  Negro  exodus  northward.  This 
is  no  condemnation  of  the  packers  as  such.  Any 
set  of  men  in  the  same  circumstances  would 
have  done  the  same. 

Conservatively  estimated,  one  hundred  thous- 
and units  of  black  blood  entered  the  economic 
and  social  arteries  of  the  commonwealth  of  the 
city  of  Chicago  during  this  period.  So  long  as 
the  door  of  opportunity  to  work  swung  to  in  no 
man's  face  these  white  and  black  corpuscles  cir- 
culated freely  and  without  disturbance  in  the 
channels  of  city  life  and  commercial  intercourse. 
True,  middle  class  respectability  looked  askance 
as  the  dark  crest  surged  and  swelled  over  the 
imaginary  Belt  line  into  the  domain  formerly 
recognized  as  strictly  white.  This  resulted  in 
several  bombings  and  individual  clashes,  but 
if  the  city  and  country  could  remove  the  roots  of 
the  industrial  cancer  the  economic  and  social  re- 
lations of  the  two  races  would  harmonize 
smoothly,  naturally  and  the  hatred  between  the 
two  races  would  wither  like  an  uprooted  weed. 

A  vicious  trinity  that  is  neither  sensible  or 
necessary  and  one  that  has  reached  its  highest 
degree  of  influence  for  evil  is  unemployed  man, 
the  job,  and  the  private  owner  of  the  job.  When 
this  nation  was  young  and  sparsely  settled  the 
question  of  the  Negro  exploitation  and  its  con- 
sequent effect  on  Northern  business  made  the 
fields  of  the  South  a  battleground  where  Amer- 

13 


loans  fought  and  died  for  what  they  thought 
was  justice  to  the  blacks  and  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation.  That  question  was  not  properly 
settled  then  and  it  will  not  and  cannot  ever  be 
properly  settled  while  the  master  and  servant 
relation  exists  in  any  form  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  And  now  the  nation  is  populous  and 
the  machinery  of  production  has  increased 
to  the  point  when  all  work  people  cannot 
work  all  the  time  at  the  machines  and  con- 
sume all  the  produce  of  their  labor  and  carry 
the  load  of  profit,  rent  and  interest  that  goes 
with  private  ownership  and  operation  of  the 
great  industries  and  resources  of  the  nation. 
The  leather  blacksnake  whip  that  sang  and 
writhed  over  the  backs  of  the  slaves  of  the  South 
is  now  cunningly  hidden  in  the  refined  lash  of 
modern  necessity  that  is  now  wielded  by  the 
present  day  representatives  of  the  slave  owners 
of  the  fifties  but  in  our  blindness,  in  our  desper- 
ation as  we  are  caught  in  the  meshes  of  an 
ever  tightening  struggle  for  jobs  and  existence 
we,  the  white  and  black  workers,  see  only  the 
worker  who  is  striving  for  the  same  position  in 
industrial  life  that  we  are  seeking  and  miss  en- 
tirely the  sinister  Moloch  of  capital  that  de- 
mands the  surplus  of  the  toil  of  the  whites  and 
the  blacks  that  would  mean  life,  education,  and 
a  successful  pursuit  of  happiness  made  easily 
realizable  for  both  races  in  America.  In  a  so- 
ciety where  man  worked  for  mankind  and  the 
mighty  engines  of  modern  industry  were  at  the 
service  of  the  people  and  not  an  unscrupulous 
powerful  minority  race  riots  would  be  ridiculous, 
unthinkable,  impossible. 

14 


Theories  advanced. 

POLITICS.  A  word  made  filthy  and  abhor- 
rent to  decent  Americans  by  the  actions  of  poli- 
ticians and  admittedly  a  source  of  much  irrita- 
tion and  disgust  in  the  hearts  of  good  men  and 
women  of  both  races.  Catering  for  votes  that 
disregards  principle  and  puts  place  and  the  re- 
wards of  position  above  community  good  is 
vicious  and  the  human  reptiles  who  practice  it 
should  be  hissed  from  the  society  of  clean  men 
of  both  races.  But  municipal  politicians  juggle 
with  effects  only.  A  municipal  government  has 
nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  the  social  system, 
or  the  schemes  of  national  business  that  sharply 
divide  the  classes  and  set  them  at  variance.  An 
exil  managed  city  government  may  aggravate 
the  people,  the  classes  and  the  races  and  cause 
friction  that  could  be  avoided  otherwise,  but  its 
influence  for  good  or  evil  on  the  national  social 
structure  upon  which  the  nation  builds  its  des- 
tiny is  nil.  Given  a  just  social  system  and  an 
average  education  and  the  slimly  things  who 
have  degraded  the  fine  science  of  municipal  po- 
litical economy  would  be  taken  by  the  nape  of  the 
neck,  their  spoils  taken  from  their  pockets  and 
kicked  beyond  the  limits  of  human  society.  Bad 
municipal  politics  aggravate  tense  situations 
but  they  never  determine  great  policies  such  as 
must  settle  the  American  race  question. 

The  Housing  Problem. 

The  inflow  of  Southern  Negroes  into  Chicago 
to  fill  the  needs  of  the  stock  yards  and  other 
industries  created  a  scarcity  of  houses  in  the 

15 


Black  Belt  that  naturally  forced  some  members 
of  the  colored  race  beyond  the  ^imaginary  boun- 
daries that  have  been  more  or  less  loosely  rec- 
ognized by  both  races.  This  is  a  community 
question  that  should  have  been  met  with  a  clean- 
cut  purpose  of  justice  to  all  but  when  the 
weights  are  manipulated  by  unscrupulous  real 
estate  sharks  and  designing  preachers  and  poli- 
ticians the  scales  of  decision  are  very  much  off 
their  balance.  But  the  housing  problem  is  simp- 
ly a  by-product  of  the  underlying  economic 
struggle  going  on  between  the  workers  of  the 
races  and,  when  aggravated,  is  mistaken  by 
some  as  a  material  contributing  cause  of 
the  race  conflict.  With  the  exception  of  some 
black  upstarts  who  are  ashamed  of  the>r  color 
and  wish  to  get  out  of  any  recognized  zone,  we 
believe  that  the  colored  population  of  Chicago 
want  to  work  and  pay  for  decent  homes  and  is 
sufficiently  self-respecting  to  desire  to  live  and 
go  their  way  in  the  world  without  intruding 
where  they  are  not  wanted  and  the  Whites  should 
show  the  same  fine  sense  of  social  discrimination. 
The  contemptible  few  who  are  not  satisfied  with 
the  opportunities  and  surroundings  among  their 
own  people  will  effectually  be  curbed  by  the 
Negro  pride  of  race  and  pressure  of  public  opin- 
ion. This  is  not  a  cause  of  race  riots;  it  is  an 
effect  that  is  heightened  by  the  greed  of  those 
who  take  advantage  of  a  loose  municipal  situa- 
tion in  order  to  turn  a  profit.  The  upstanding, 
self  respecting  Negroes  want  to  live  by  them- 
selves; it  is  up  to  the  city  to  see  that  they  are 
£fiven  the  opportunity. 


16 


Hoodlums. 

The  hoodlum  element  may  be  reckoned  with 
in  any  crisis  but  it  must  not  be  mistaken  for 
the  cause  of  any  great  social  disturbance.  The 
vicious  hoodlum  element  can  never  "start"  any- 
thing that  even  the  man  on  the  curbstone  will 
stand  for.  Under  the  loosening  of  ordinary  re- 
straints that  inevitably  happens  when  there  is  a 
social  upheaval  of  any  character  whatsoever  the 
"roughnecks"  are  in  the  streets,  thickening  the 
difficulties  and  exasperating  decent  people  on 
both  sides  of  any  controversy,  but  to  attribute 
to  this  crowd  any  social  power  or  material  in- 
flilence  is  shooting  wide  of  the  mark  indeed. 

During  the  American,  French  and  English 
Revolutions  and  the  Civil  War  in  America  this 
layer  of  human  degeneracy  complicated  the 
issues  involved  and  made  the  task  of  the  pro- 
gressive forces  doubly  hard. 

While  society  was  shaken  by  the  events  of 
the  above  periods  unprotected  homes,  inns  and 
churches  were  sacked  and  the  occupants  and 
those  in  charge  mistreated.  But  no  one  attempts 
to  confuse  the  purposes  of  these  vandals  with 
the  sacred  purpose  of  these  revolutions.  Just 
so  with  Chicago.  Many  superficial  thinkers  talk 
much  of  "hoodlum  elements  of  both  sides"  being 
to  blame.  Hoodlum  degeneracy  never  precipa- 
tated  a  social  crisis ;  it  simply  feeds  on  the  license 
accompanying  times  of  great  stress. 


17 


Racial  Antagonisms. 

Between  the  White  and  Black  races  nature 
has  created  a  physical  division  that  possibly  will 
never  be  bridged.  Some  one  has  said  that  "The 
E^ast  is  East  and  West  is  West  and  never  the 
twain  shall  meet".  With  ten-fold  emphasis  one 
could  truthfully  say,  White  is  White  and  Black 
is  Black  and  never  the  twain  shall  meet.  But 
that  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  the  races 
must  live  at  daggers  drawn  or  with  a  smolder- 
ing f ued  festering  under  a  thin  veneer  of  civilized 
hypocrisy.  The  savage  and  superstitious  theory 
that  the  black  race  was  cursed  and  put  in  bojid- 
age  forever  to  the  whites  because  poor  Ham 
looked  upon  his  father  in  a  drunken  fit  has  been 
the  source  of  much  pernicious  thinking  for  cent- 
uries, and  should  be  laughed  away  along  with 
a  lot  of  other  sanctimonious  trickery.  Aside 
from  the  generally  accepted  fact  that  there  is  a 
natural  aversion  that  makes  the  amalgamation 
of  the  races  impossible  and  unthinkable,  the  re- 
sults of  Black  and  White  crossing  show  deter- 
ioration that,  if  the  races  were  inclined  to  prac- 
tice it,  would  finally  see  this  civilization  over- 
powjj^red  and  swept  away  by  a  race  of  purer 
type.  Intermarriage  would  result  in  mediocrity 
that  would  plunge  us  all  into  the  swift  down- 
ward course  that  leads  to  the  extinction  of  all 
hybrids. 

We  wish  to  submit  here  a  chapter  on  racial 
development  from  the  book  "Mankind"  by  Seth 
K.  Humphrey.  We  do  not  endorse  every  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Humphrey,  we  simply  insert  it  here 
for  the  purpose  of  presenting  an  interesting 
angle  of  a  much  discussed  problem. 

18 


A  Study  of  Racial  Development. 

In  the  Negro-White  this  country  faces  a  prob- 
lem that  overshadows  every  other  in  its  mixed 
population.  The  problem  is  not  between  full 
White  and  full  Black;  the  two  opposites  of  the 
world's  peoples  have  not  enough  in  common  on 
which  to  have  a  substantial  difference.  It  con- 
cerns the  mulatto,  a  being  who  is  neither  one 
nor  the  other,  but  a  part  of  both. 

Two  more  diverse  races  were  never  called  up- 
on to  remingle  their  inheritances.  We  do  not 
even  know  what  it  is  a  remingling,  for  that  im- 
plies racial  acquaintances  in  a  former  age.  Yet 
it  matters  Ij'ttle  whether  or  not  White  or  Black 
is  derived  from  a  common  ancestor;  the  period 
of  their  divergence  as  separate  races  is  so  lost 
.in  the  black  recesses  of  time  that  no  claim  now 
to  singleness  of  origin  can  soften  the  fact  of 
their  complete  social  estrangement. 

So  distince  from  each  other  are  their  inheri- 
tances that  never  in  history  have  full  White  and 
Black  lived  in  intimate  relation  of  equality.  Yet 
within  the  limits  of  his  person  the  Negro-White 
carifies  the  elements  of  both  in  the  closest  asso- 
ciation. We  know,  of  course,  that  these  elements 
hold  their  identity  even  in  this  strange  compan- 
ionship. Black  remains  Black  and  White  is  still 
White. 

We  call  him  Mulatto,  but  classify  him  in  law 
and  society  with  full-blood  Negro ;  here  we  shall 
call  him  Negro-White,  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
in  the  fundamentals  of  his  inheritance  he  is  truly 
a  hyphenated  citizen.  And  so  absurd  a  misno- 
mer has  the  word  "Negro"  become  that  we  must 
speak  of  the  unmixed  African  as  Black. 

19 


It  ie  presumable  that  most  White  stock  ming- 
ling with  Black  is  of  the  non-assertive,  inferior 
quality  which  would  of  itself  settle  complacent- 
ly in  any  environment.  The  average  Negro- 
White  takes  as  easily  the  condition  within  his 
soul  as  the  inferior  Whtite  takes  the  conditions 
in  his  neighborhood.  But  we  know  that  in  the 
days  of  slavery  much  of  the  best  Southern  blood 
found  its  way  into  colored  veins.  Those  dom- 
inating, assertive  traits  still  wander  unchanged 
thru  the  germ-plasmic  streams  of  many  a  hum- 
ble colored  folk.  What  a  chaos  of  emotions, 
then,  must  there  be  in  the  soul  of  him  whose 
sadly  rr.tfxed  inheritance  happens  to  include  some 
of  these  passion-sown  jewels  of  the  White  man! 
Is  there  a  more  excruciating  intimacy  than  that 
of  dominantly  White,  bred  thru  unnumbered 
generations  to  association  with  the  best  of  Ary- 
an, fettered  within  the  limits  of  a  soul  to  a  com- 
pany of  uncomprehending  Black?  The  Negro- 
White  thus  affljcted  is  a  living  protest.  His  is 
not  the  protest  of  the  Negro — no  Negro  protests 
his  race.  It  is  the  cry  of  a  forceful  Aryanin 
soul-entanglement  with  an  utterly  strange  being. 
How  little  do  we  comprehend  the  character  ar- 
rangement of  this  racially  perplexed  individual. 
He  does  not  even  comprehend  himself.  When 
with  quivering  voice  and  muscles  tense,  he  de- 
claims aga,inst  the  injustice  done  "his  race",  he 
falls  into  the  common  error  that  his  race  is  the 
Negro.  He,  too,  yields  to  general  opinion  and 
the  law  that  a  single  line,  drawn  close  up  to  full 
White,  and  farthest  away  from  full  Black, 
divides  the  two  races.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
line  between  Negro  and  Whjte  would  have  to 

20 


thread  its  way  thru  every  cell  iji  the  Negro- 
White's  body.  Classification  of  him  with  either 
race  is  absurd,  no  matter  at  what  degree  of 
color  the  line  is  drawn.  The  Negro-White  be- 
longs to  neither  race.  He  has  the  unchanged 
qualities  of  both. 

We  little  realize  jnto  what  errors  this  class- 
ification of  the  Negro-White  leads  us.  His  thous- 
and acts  of  initiative  in  conforming  to  the  Aryan 
way  are  impelled  by  his  White  characteristics, 
yet  so  accustomed  are  we  to  regard  as  Negro 
every  person  with  a  trace  of  colored  blood  that 
we  set  down  these  acts  to  the  credjt  or  discredit 
of  the  Negro. 

Most  of  the  literature  and  all  the  statistics 
covering  Negro  activities  are  worthless,  since 
they  deal  mainly  with  doings  of  White  men  with 
Black  inheritance.  There  is  no  initiatjve . in  the 
full-blood  Negro  to  follow  the  White  man's  way, 
however  well  he  may  be  taught  to  do  so. 

This  last  statement  will  be  vigorously  pro- 
tested with  an  array  of  "Negroes"  who  have  dem- 
onstrated large  capacity.  But  as  with  the  In- 
dian, no  negro  in  America  can  say  with  any  de- 
gree of  certainty  that  he  i,is  full-blood  African. 
Continued  infusion  of  Black  into  a  once  mixed 
line  may  so  reduce  the  proportion  of  its  White 
characteristics  as  to  obscure  them  from  the  eye, 
but  as  long  as  any  remain  they  are  identical  with 
their  predecessors  that  first  strayed  over  from 
the  Aryan,  and  still  effective  for  determining 
character,  altho  of  less  effect  because  of  the  load 
of  Black. 

Now  when  a  "Negro"  attains  to  more  than  an 
average  success  in  those  matters  which  pertain 

21 


largely  to  the  White  man,  and  thru  the  ages  be- 
yond were  beyond  the  attainments  of  the  Afri- 
can, it  is  a  sensible  conclusion  that  he  is  dom- 
inated by  his  White  characteristics.  Booker  T. 
Washington  is  said  to  have  had  a  remarkably 
able  White  father.  Surely  no  one  who  has 
watched  his  great  educational  work  would  say 
that  the  Black  inheritance  of  Booker  Washing- 
ton was  asserting  itself.  And  very  few  colored 
people  who  manifest  Wtyite  initiative  claim  or 
appear  to  be  full  Black.  It  is  just  this  estrange- 
ment in  the  flesh  of  White  and  Black  that  makes 
the  hopelessness  of  any  solution  for  the  Negro- 
White  problem.  Nature  is  wise  in  decreeing 
sterility  for  the  offspring  of  racially  discordant 
matings.  The  offense  against  her  cannot  be 
perpetuated.  She  would  have  been  more  than 
kind  had  she  put  a  like  ban  upon  the  evil  mat- 
ings  of  White  and  Black,  for  that  would  have 
left  the  races  virtually  full  White  and  full  Black, 
with  their  common  desire  to  live  after  its  own 
fashion.  Then  there  could  have  been  no  race 
problem.  With  the  fall  of  slavery,  the  separa- 
tion would  have  been  easily  effected,  and  the 
integrity  of  the  White  race  maintained. 

But  nature  decrees  that  the  Aryan  shall  pay 
dearly  for  tyis  forcible  crossings  with  other  peo- 
ples. That  decree  is  written  upon  the  vanish- 
ing ruin  of  every  dead  civilization.  And  so 
now  in  America  a  tenth  of  our  population  is  of 
Negro  blood  of  some  degree,  grafted  upon  us 
by  the  unbreakable  ties  of  blood  infusion. 

Why  talk  of  deporting  to  their  African  home 
a  people  no  one  can  separate  into  Black  and 
White?  Why  talk  of  the  Negro-White  as  either 

22 


Negro  or  White?  So  to  the  ever-increasing  pro- 
portion of  our  inferior  stocks  we  must  add  in  one 
lump  the  mixture  of  ten  millions.  To  hasten 
the  day  when  the  critical  proportion  of  our  own 
ineffectiveness  shall  have  been  attained,  and  we, 
too,  go  the  way  of  all  others 

Cause  and  Remedy. 

Oan  the  white  and  black  workers  live  in 
American  towns  and  cities  and  toil  in  the  same 
industries  .in  peace,  harmony  and  understand- 
ing? Shall  there  be  segregation  by  law?  Shall 
the  increasing  Black  race  be  colonized?  Shall 
we  attempt  the  solution  of  the  first  great  ques- 
tion and  dispose  of  the  second  and  third  silly 
ones  by  boldly  launching  all  the  intelligence  that 
the  vitally  interested  ones  of  both  races,  the 
workers,  possess  in  a  nation-wide  effort  to  ad- 
just our  differences  where  the  conflict  is  most 
bitter — on  the  industrial  field?  In  a  word,  shall 
the  axe  be  put  to  the  root  of  modern  racial  an- 
tagonism as  it  exists  under  the  present  system 
of  bitter  competition  for  jobs? 

If  this  pamphlet  is  instrumental  in  success- 
fully raising  a  general  discussion  of  the  above 
questions  and  results  on  a  closer  solidarity  of 
the  workers  white  and  black  in  the  unions  and 
workingclass  politics,  it  will  have  achieved  a 
high  and  noble  purpose. 

Were  the  race  riots  the  result  of  dislike,  or 
granting  there  is  a  physical  antipathy  between 
the  races  that  raises  a  hopeless  and  impossible 
social  barrier,  can  the  races  liive  in  industrial, 
economic  and  political  understanding? 

We  can  only  when  the  competition  of  the  col- 

23 


ored  workers  in  the  struggle  for  jobs  does  not 
menace  the  economic  foundation  of  the  whate 
workers'  prosperity. 

The  above  questions,  coupled  as  they  are  with 
possibilities  and  realization  in  American  cities 
and  towns,  challenge  the  attention  and  thought- 
ful consideration  of  every  man  and  woman  who 
real.izes  the  necessity  of  grappling  with  a  prob- 
lem that  looms  larger  with  every  passing  year. 
And,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  settlement  of 
this  matter  depends  almost  wholly  upon  agree- 
ment and  co-operation  of  the  common  people  of 
both  races.  These  questions  and  the  satisfac- 
tory answer  have  roots  far  down  in  the  fabric 
of  our  social  system  where  the  politician  and 
the  profiteer  do  not  care  to  go.  A  clear  under- 
standing of  our  difficulties  and  a  decisive  ap- 
plication of  the  cure  can  come  only  with  a  revo- 
lution in  our  method  of  thinking  and  in  our 
race  relations  in  every  branch  of  industry.  And 
above  all  we  must  cooly  and  calmly  realize  that 
the  interests  of  the  enemies  of  the  toiling  blacks 
and  whites  are  promoted  by  just  such  misunder- 
standing as  resulted  in  the  race  fued  of  July- 
August  1919. 

No  permanent  settlement  of  our  present  race 
troubles  is  worth  thinking  about  that  does  not 
provide  that  the  black  worker  shall  enter  in- 
dustry and  have  an  honored  and  respected  place 
there;  and  that  he  or  she  shall  take  up  the  re- 
sponsibilities and  privileges  of  unionism  and  co- 
operative economic  activity  of  every  character. 
Exclusion  of  the  Negro  from  union  activity  will 
be  fatal  to  any  fundamental  racial  progress; 
voluntary  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  negro  or  the 

24 


white  worker  to  take  this  forward  step  leaves 
both  races  as  they  are  now  —  pawns  in  the 
hands  of  the  industrial  kings  and  profiteers,  to 
be  played  one  against  the  other  for  the  benefit 
of  the  few, 

The  color  line  in  the  unions  is  not  desired  by 
intelligent  union  men  as- this  sort  of  policy  only 
serves  to  create  a  cheap,  desperate  army  of  sub- 
missive unorganized  "hands"  that  renders  in- 
effective a  general  advance  of  labor.  The  unions 
everywhere,  as  they  are  doing  in  the  stockyards 
of  Chicago,  should  extend  the  right  hand  of  wel- 
come to  their  fellow  workers  who  happen  to 
have  a  dark  skin,  and  the  colored  workingman 
and  woman  must  earnestly  take  up  the  work 
of  unionizing  their  color.  Socially  choosing  their 
own  paths  but  co-operating  closely  on  the  indus- 
trial and  political  fields  they  may  enjoy  those 
priceless  benefits  of  solidarity  that  make  strong- 
ly organized  men  and  women  independent,  self- 
reliant  and  powerful.  Any  proposed  solution  of 
the  race  question  that  does  not  emphsize  unity 
of  economic  organization  as  its  basic  principle 
and  industrial  co-operation  on  the  job  in  the 
stockyards,  the  factories  of  Chicago  and  in  the 
mines,  mills  and  industries  of  the  nation  is  crim- 
inally shortsighted  and  absolutely  unmindful  of 
the  best  interests  of  both  races. 

The  Major  Cause. 

The  fierce  and  never-ending  competition  be- 
tween wage-workers  for  a  place  at  the  machines 
of  industry  that  provide  Americans  with  food, 
clothing  and  shelter  puts  worker  against  work- 
er in  a  never-ending  struggle  which  at  times 
• 

25 


arouses  all  the  best  and  worst  there  is  in  the 
human  breast.  Since  the  time  when  mankind 
wrung  a  living  from  the  face  of  nature  with  their 
bare  hands  the  fight  for  the  necessaries  of  life 
has  never  been  more  intense  and  uncompromis- 
ing than  in  the  normal  times  of  competitive  in- 
dustry. In  tfimes  of  adnormal  prosperity  the 
harshness  of  the  struggle  vanishes  and  the  peo- 
ple are  happy,  contented  and  peaceful ;  but  the 
vicious  circle  of  profit  and  surplus  soon  slows 
down  the  machines  and  again  there  are  more 
men  than  jobs.  During  such  times  unemployed 
men  are  apt  to  be  intolerant  of  the  Negro.  On 
the  whole  the  record  of  the  colored  unionist  is 
good,  where  he  has  been  unionized,  but  for  rea- 
sons that  can  be  laid  to  the  doors  of  both  whites 
and  blacks,  the  great  majority  of  Negroes  have 
not  assisted  in  the  solidarity  of  labor  by  organ- 
izing. This  has  led  to  a  nation-wide  suspicion 
that  the  Negro  element  can  be  "used"  in  times 
of  peace  and  especially  in  times  of  strike  to 
block  a  strike  and  other  efforts  to  advance  the 
interests  of  labor.  Tho  this  is  not  true  in  all 
states,  there  still  remains  the  fact  that  but  a 
small  fraction  of  the  black  workers  have  allied 
themselves  with  the  white  workers  in  the  strug- 
gle for  the  improvement  of  labor's  lot. 

Now  the  white  man  must  work  at  the  ma- 
chine. The  black  man  must  work  at  the  ma- 
chine. The  private  owners  of  the  machines 
buy  labor  to  operate  the  machines  just  as  you, 
reader,  buy  bread — just  as  cheaply  as  possible. 
The  job  question  is  the  biggest  thing  that  the 
white  and  black  workers  have  in  common  and  if 
there  is  misunderstanding,  division  and  hatred 

26 


there  these  feelings  will  be  carried  into  every  re- 
lation where  white  and  black  must  meet  and 
from  such  seed  nothing  but  friction  and  conflict 
can  develop.  Upon  the  assured  right  to  work 
and  "bring  home  the  bacon"  rests  the  well-being 
and  happiness  of  every  home;  when  this  right 
is  stabilized  and  safeguarded  the  current  of  na- 
tional industrial  and  social  life  runs  deep  and 
true,  unmindful  of  the  few  pieces  of  unpleasant 
wreckage  that  seem  unavoidable  in  life;  but 
when  the  whole  structure  of  home  and  working- 
class  prosperity  is  disturbed  by  inability  to 
work,  or  inability  to  provide  the  comforts  of  life 
with  the  returns  of  labor,  then  the  primal  law 
of  self  preservation  asserts  itself,  every  religious 
and  civilization  check  is  swept  away  and  the 
modern  cave-man,  in  tailor  made  clothes  and 
living  in  flats,  is  again  contending  for  his  piece 
of  meat  and  a  place  to  hunt. 

Any  discussion  of  causes  of  race  conflict  and 
race  riots  that  ignores  the  fundamental  com- 
petition for  existence  and  does  not  make  allow- 
ance for  all  the  viciousness  in  the  human  nature 
that  is  aroused  when  the  means  of  livelihood  is 
threatened,  misses  the  pivot  upon  which  the 
whole  matter  of  peaceable  relations  of  the  races 
swing. 

As  the  satellites  gravitate  around  the  sun 
and  are  dependant  upon  that  great  luminary 
for  an  existence,  so  do  such  minor  matters  as 
the  housing  problem,  physical  antagonism  of  the 
races  and  hoodlumism  depend  upon  the  seeth- 
ing ferment  of  job  competition  for  their  exis- 
tence. 

27 


The  Remedy. 

There  may  be  sneers  in  some  quarters  of  an 
attempt  to  offer  a  comprehensive  remedy  for  so 
great  a  problem  as  the  American  race  question 
in  the  pages  of  a  pamphlet  of  this  size,  scope 
and  character.  But  with  this,  as  with  all  other 
great  problems,  there  are  a  few  fundamental 
principles  about  which  there  are  written  tomes 
and  tomes  and  stacks  and  stacks  of  tiresome 
books  that  merely  befuddle  the  issue  and  fur- 
nish quacks  and  parasites  with  a  revenue. 

The  basic  principle  upon  which  all  success- 
ful treatment  of  any  disease  depends  is  correct 
diagnosis.  The  symptoms  must  be  scientifically 
correlated  and  the  relation  between  cause  and 
effect  definitely  established. 

Does  the  white  man  feel  instinctive  dislike 
or  hatred  for  the  Negro?  It  cannot  be  asserted 
with  any  regard  for  candor  or  truth  that  this 
is  the  case.  In  thousands  of  average-sized  towns 
in  the  United  States,  Negroes,  when  in  an  in- 
significant minority,  are  cordially  accepted  into 
the  community  life  far  more  cheerfully  than 
the  Mexican,  the  Jap,  the  Chinaman  and  half- 
breeds  of  various  crosses.  And  let  it  be  forever 
remembered  that  thousands  of  Americans  died 
on  the  battlefields  of  the  South  for  the  privilege 
OF  KEEPING  THE  BLACK  PEOPLE  IN 
THEIR  MIDST.  Of  course,  some  one  will  im- 
mediately rise  and  say  "They  did  not  fight  for 
the  social  pleasure  of  their  company;  they  died 
for  the  right  to  exploit  them  as  slaves."  And 
that  is  just  the  meat  and  gist  of  the  whole  mat- 

28 


ter.  So  long  as  the  economic  relations  between 
the  races  are  adjusted  according  to  the  dominant 
majority  opinion,  there  will  be  no  race  trouble 
other  than  that  arising  from  the  occasional  rape, 
killing  or  such.  (And  in  justice  to  the  colored 
race  let  us  admit  that,  including  the  terrible 
tragedies  of  slavery  days,  there  have  been  hun- 
dreds of  black  women  abused  to  one  white  wom- 
an.) It  is  not  the  presence  of  the  Negro  in  any 
community  that  causes  disturbances;  it  is  the 
presence  of  the  Negro  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
constitute  a  menace  to  white  workers  that  breeds 
such  riots  as  disgraced  Chicago.  Did  you  ever 
hear  of  Southern  plantation  owners  or  North- 
ern White  employers  rioting  against  Negroes? 
NOT  SO  THAT  IT  WAS  NOTICEABLE.  And 
every  reasonable  American  will  admit  that  all 
grave  race  crises  in  the  United  States  have 
their  'origin  in  some  violent  disagreement  of 
opinion  as  to  what  the  economic  relation  of  the 
Negro  in  American  industry  should  be. 

These  plain  facts  bring  us  to  the  point  of 
grappling  with  the  present  day  phases  of  the 
Negro  problem.  And  now,  as  always,  this  prob- 
lem has  its  roots  in  industrial  relations. 

The  Civil  War  was  a  big  riot  over  the  Negro 
and  the  victory  of  the  North  settled  forever  the 
chattel  relation  of  the  Black  to  his  master.  But 
by  destroying  the  chattel  slave  fetters  that  en- 
circled the  Negro,  by  encouraging  the  growth 
of  the  race  and  inventing  labor-saving  machinery 
the  former  happy-go-lucky  race  of  field  work- 
ers a  few  thousand  in  number  have  become  an 
industrial  unit  ten  million  strong  that  clamors 

29 


for  places  in  modern  industry  AND  HAS  NO 
PLACE  ELSE  TO  GO. 

And  now  for  the  remedy  and  its  applica- 
tion. 

The  Negro  produces  more  than  he  consumes 
and  is  therefore  not  a  parasite.  The  White 
worker  does  the  same  and  so  far  their  interests 
are  identical.  The  profiteer  and  Big  Business 
accumulate  their  riches  by  reason  of  the  surplus 
created  by  the  difference  between  what  the  White 
and  Black  workers  produce  and  what  they  get. 
Right  here  is  the  basis  of  the  poverty,  ignorance 
and  job  competition  that  underlies  all  serious 
race  antagonism.  Unity  here  will  clear  the  so- 
cial atmosphere  as  lightning  clears  the  heavens. 
Realization  that  economic  comradeship  in  the 
unions  combatting  parasites  and  exploiters  as 
the  common  enemies  of  both  races  will  mean 
the  industrial  and  political  triumph  of  the  toil- 
ers and  a  social  understanding  whereby  the  races 
may  live  united  and  yet  separate;  and  with  the 
bitter  misunderstanding  and  struggle  concern- 
ing the  jobs  eliminated  all  other  minor  matters 
between  the  races  will  mean  no  more  than  they 
do  between  whites.  With  both  races  carrying 
union  cards  in  their  pockets,  with  a  demand  for 
equality  of  opportunity  in  their  hearts,  with 
faces  set  like  flint  against  their  common  enemies, 
the  menace  of  race  riots,  of  poverty  stricken 
wage  slavery,  of  the  whole  bitter  struggle  for 
mere  existence  that  now  falls  to  the  lot  of  the 
builders  and  toilers  of  America  will  become  a 
nightmare  of  an  ignorant  barbaric  past. 

30 


When  the  White  man  and  the  Black  man 
grasp  hands  in  the  fraternal  grip  of  industrial 
unionism  and  go  forward  in  intelligent  political 
action  the  day  of  beastly  self-destruction  and 
class  fratricide  will  pass,  and  the  day  of  an  in- 
dustrially co-operating  working  class  of  both 
races  which  will  dominate  society  for  the  good 
of  all  will  break. 


31 


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